'The Vampire Diaries' Nina Dobrev on Katherine: 'It must be a lonely place'

"Vampire Diaries"executive producer
Kevin Williamson recently said that when planning out Season 2, he and executive producer
Julie Plec only planned on featuring Katherine a couple of times.

"We had written the first episode and we were down on set watching Miss Nina portray her in that little black outfit and slink her way to set. I said, 'OK, we might need to rethink this,'" Williamson
says.

Zap2it was also on set that hot July day, so we definitely agree that watching
Nina Dobrev go into a trailer as Elena and come out as Katherine was mind-boggling.

When we returned to set in March, we sat down with Nina to talk about her experience playing both Katherine and Elena. Since that first day in July, things have gotten a little bit more complicated in the world of our favorite doppelganger double.

"I've come to the point where I carry around two scripts instead of one, because there were just too many notes, and I couldn't focus," she says. Even her binders reflect the nature of the two characters. "I have this black bound script that says Katherine on it in red writing, and then I have the baby blue script for Elena. It has to be color coordinated. I really have to separate them."

She also uses a third script, where she makes notes on the stage directions. "I have to map out, physically, what I'm doing, along with how I am emotionally, to distinguish them."

Nina shares her stage direction script with her stand in, Brittany. "She's very talented," Nina says of her double. "If it wasn't for her I don't know what I would do. We talk a lot and I explain to her my mannerisms and where and how to stand so that she can match me, and then we can switch roles."

Katherine finds herself in a precarious situation at the moment, now that she's been captured by Klaus and he's threatening at least 250 years of torture. She's definitely not held in high regard by Damon and Stefan at the moment, especially after betraying them when she thought Isobel had figured out how to lose Klaus.

Still, her connection with the Salvatores is undeniable... though Damon may have denied her advances last time she crawled into his bed. "It's a low blow if Damon is shutting you out," Nina laughs. "Damon, at this point, is basically going for anything he can get. Damon shutting you out is a big ouchie."

Don't expect Katherine to stay down for long, though. "When she gets rejected, she wants it even more," she says. "It's the want-what-I-can't-have syndrome. It makes the dynamic with Katherine and Damon a little bit more interesting because all of a sudden he doesn't want her anymore. It's kind of like 'Oh, you don't want me? I'm going to
make you want me.' It heightens the love triangle even more between those three."

Season 2 shooting wrapped on April 15, and Dobrev is looking forward to a relaxing summer. "I'm really looking forward to spending a chunk of it on a beach somewhere, away from the world, with a book and the sunshine, just verging out because I need to catch up on sleep," she says. "I don't know who Nina is anymore. I'm just a vessel for these different people that I have to play! I want to travel and try to get away and put my time and my energy into something that is a little selfish and feeds my soul and takes me away from this world."

Of course, Nina has just landed a highly sought-after role as Candace in the upcoming adaptation of "Perks of Being a Wallflower," so the window of beach time has closed significantly. She'll head back to Atlanta in early July to return to work on "The Vampire Diaries." Watch the video below for much more on Katherine, Elena, and even the book series that helps Nina escape the way "The Vampire Diaries" does for fans.